It was mainstream cool when the celebrities caught up, and now it’s on its way down.

Fundementally geeks tend not to care what others think, as the geeking out on a topic or activity is so much part of our mindset that at worst we might hide the hobby, but generally are always happy to talk about it. Wow or any other game’s “cool status” or its appeal as a “social activity benchmark” misses the point that most of the players are true geeks about it. And if not about World of Warcraft specifically, then it might be computer games in general.

The point made about wow being “Golf for Geeks” might be true for a smattering of people thinking it might make a difference to a job or a social niche, but any golf player can detect a newbie or a pretender, and so can a gamer. Did anyone actually stop or start playing computer games just because a celebrity did? Pretty shallow.

Many years ago we interviewed a Dev and she said WoW was one of her hobbies, and while we joked in the interview about her being Horde scum, it made no difference to the outcome.

Some celebrity or mid-weight personality playing WoW has no influence on my wow one way or the other. I guess the article might generate some hits for Wired though, as I geek out about a quasi-anti-wow story. Wink.

The two starting areas are great, with a different feel to each; but this is gem from Howling Fjord is cool.

Now that’s what the multi-seat Engineering flying mounts should look like! This wasn’t even a core feature of the quest, just a fantastic way to get to the quest location, you know: basic a-to-b transportation. No wonder folks are raving about this expansion. The eye candy as you level is excellent.

Today I’ve been a robot, flown in a jet, surfed a harpoon, trained and controlled a hawk, used the lifts, and rained fire down on a coastal village. Damn having to work tomorrow.